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So a few of you have been pestering me to post an intro to playing slide guitar, so here goes. I am by no means a decent player, I just thought I'd share what I have picked up so far.

Tuning

Although you can play slide in standard tuning, it normally involves having to mute certain strings and all sorts of other tricksey bits, so I advise starting off on an open tuning, that way you can play all of the strings without sounding like a complete idiot ?

I use Open G in this video (D G D G B D) basically you just drop the 1st, 5th and 6th string down a tone.

Slides

The most common slides are made from either Glass, Brass, Chrome or Ceramic. I am using a Moonshine Ceramic Slide in the video. Metal slides sound a bit harsh and dirty to me, glass is warmer, but can sound a bit dull. I find that ceramic is the best of both worlds.

Action

The Tele I am playing here has been modified specifically for slide playing. I have removed the 6th string (how Keith Richards of me), raised the action quite a bit, and raised the pickup height on the treble side quite a bit. You do not NEED to raise the action, but it does make it a lot easier to avoid buzzing against the frets.

Technique

A couple of things to take note of that I didn't know when I first tried this.

Firstly, you do not use the slide to press the strings down on the fretboard like you would normally fret a note. You just lightly touch the strings from above. Just enough for the note to ring clear. In a sense the slide becomes the fret wire.

Whereas you would normally fret a note on the wood part just in front of the fret wire, with slide you hold the slide directly above the fret wire, again, imagine the slide being the fret wire. Yes you need to wiggle it back and forth a bit, but don't go too far away from that fret wire initially.

Always hold the slide perpendicular to the strings, if you have it at too much of an angle your notes will be off.



Here is the video, I know the sound, video and playing quality is pretty shoddy (particularly at the end), but so be it, I have said numerous times I do not play guitar in public!!

    Hey Fritz, sounds pretty cool to me!
    Looks like loads of fun too, i could probably spend a good few hours playing around with that!
    Nice stuff.
      Thanks dude! Yea it is a load of fun! Much easier than normal guitar playing too ?
        Go Fritz - you certainly got Kief sassed there. :bopping:
          Fritz Brand wrote: Thanks dude! Yea it is a load of fun! Much easier than normal guitar playing too ?
          Whoaaaa! Steady on there... There's slide and then there's slide 8)
            I know dude, I did say this is BASIC, just an intro....
              Thanks for the slide intro. Do you ever play slide on acoustic?
                G wrote: Thanks for the slide intro. Do you ever play slide on acoustic?
                well recently i have started playing slide in standard tuning on my classical guitar ....for my original worl music show.... works well...and i use a lighter slide made of alluminium it's fun thats all i can say and one can coax some great tones out of the intruments......

                so in answer to your question YES mostly slide is traditionally played on steel string acoustics.... but i'm finding to my surprise that nylon strings react to slide too ........

                peace and light
                Keira
                  Yes traditionally slide is played on steel string acoustics.

                  Wow Keira I didn't think a nylon would work at all, I will check it out as soon as I can!!
                    Keira WitherKay wrote:
                    G wrote: Thanks for the slide intro. Do you ever play slide on acoustic?
                    well recently i have started playing slide in standard tuning on my classical guitar ....for my original worl music show.... works well...and i use a lighter slide made of alluminium it's fun thats all i can say and one can coax some great tones out of the intruments......

                    so in answer to your question YES mostly slide is traditionally played on steel string acoustics.... but i'm finding to my surprise that nylon strings react to slide too ........

                    peace and light
                    Keira
                    Wow - now that's something I never thought to try... will give it a bash.

                    @ Fritz - the tele seems to be particularly well suited to slide - got mine set up specifically too, including angled nut!
                      Jack Flash Jr wrote: @ Fritz - the tele seems to be particularly well suited to slide - got mine set up specifically too, including angled nut!
                      Yea I really dig messing about on mine. Not sure what you mean by angled nut? have you got your nut set up so that the strings are all the same height, or the bass strings are a tad higher? More detail please!!
                        Fritz Brand wrote:
                        Jack Flash Jr wrote: @ Fritz - the tele seems to be particularly well suited to slide - got mine set up specifically too, including angled nut!
                        Yea I really dig messing about on mine. Not sure what you mean by angled nut? have you got your nut set up so that the strings are all the same height, or the bass strings are a tad higher? More detail please!!
                        Sent mine in for a slide set up to a techie (had neck issues from doing whammy bombs using the neck - idiot, I know, so needed that looked at too) who used to work at Sandton Music (now long gone) and it came back with the usual saddle adjustments and a new nut that was trimmed on the bass end so that the treble strings had a higher action. So it went from bass (medium high) to treble (high) and worked like a bomb when standing and playing but disconcerting when seated and looking at the strings. When you buy plastic replacement nuts they normally need trimming so you can play around a lot. Not sure if this is usual practice?? Perhaps Alan and co. can chime in as to whether this adversely affects intonation/pick-up height set-ups etc.
                          Thanks Don! That does sound right yea ? Post edited.

                          Jack, yea I get what you are saying, I'd ideally want all my strings to be the same height, or as yours is, the treble ones a tad higher. Have you also got your pickup height set higher at the treble end, mine is WAY higher at the treble end.
                            Another neat little bit of equipment is a nut raiser (dont know what its really called...) I saw it in a StewMac catalogue once. Its basically a bent piece of metal with string grooves on the top. It slips under the strings and over the nut - to raise the action. All you do then, is lift the bridge by using its own screws. It's made specifically for slide playing, but means you don't need to mess around too much with the guitar and can quite easily get it back to ''normal'' setup for ''normal'' playing. If anybody is planning on ever sourcing/ordering one, pse let me know! I've intended to get one from the US for a long time now...
                              Matt White wrote: Another neat little bit of equipment is a nut raiser (dont know what its really called...) I saw it in a StewMac catalogue once. Its basically a bent piece of metal with string grooves on the top. It slips under the strings and over the nut - to raise the action. All you do then, is lift the bridge by using its own screws. It's made specifically for slide playing, but means you don't need to mess around too much with the guitar and can quite easily get it back to ''normal'' setup for ''normal'' playing. If anybody is planning on ever sourcing/ordering one, pse let me know! I've intended to get one from the US for a long time now...
                              That's sounds really cool!

                              @ Fritz - pickups not adjusted actually, but honestly doesn't seem to have a huge effect compared to the 'normal' set-up...
                                Matt White wrote: Another neat little bit of equipment is a nut raiser (dont know what its really called...) I saw it in a StewMac catalogue once.
                                Here you go/found it: Its actually called the Slide Guitar Extension Nut (product no 4596 at StewMac). Made from nickel plated steel and designed specifically for playing your guitar lap steel style with a steel bar. But Im sure itll work for normal slide playing as well.
                                  Yup I've seen those, wouldn't mind one, but my Tele is dedicated to slide, so I don't really care about normal tuning much. I do think you may have intonation issues with a gadget like that, and it might actually make the action TOO high, but who knows, it could be cool!

                                  Jack, maybe its the strings I use (Not Even Slinkies) but I found that the bass strings overpowered the treble quite a bit, had trouble getting the treble strings to "get themselves heard" so I raised the pickup on the treble side and its a lot more balanced now. Might not be an issue for you though.

                                    Shot Fritz, now I have to set one of my gutars up for slide.... :?

                                    I bought one of those progressive lesson books on slide recently. It is very good. The left hand technique is tough.

                                    check this out...
                                      Love Ben Harper - God Fearing Man is one of my top ten songs...